Student Book Sample Pages - Nelson Education

Electronic touch-tone phones, in which callers pressed buttons
instead of turning dials, became widespread in the 1960s. Up until the
1980s, most telephones were connected by wires. Calls had to be made
from inside buildings or outdoor phone booths. Today’s telephones
(Figure 2(b)) are smaller, mobile, and have different uses. They
are completely electronic, with few, if any, moving parts. They can
transmit sound, printed messages, photographs, and moving images
all over the world.
To learn more about the history of
telephones,
Go to Nelson Science
(a)
(b)
Figure 2 As systems evolve, do we
become more dependent on them
Education Systems
Imagine going to Grade 9 in a school where you did not need to
attend regular classes all the time. What would it be like to be able to
learn at your own pace and to write tests when you were ready How
would you like to have the freedom, within guidelines, to make your
own timetable Believe it or not, schools like this exist! Mary Ward
Catholic Secondary School in Toronto is one of just two self-directed
learning schools in Ontario (Figure 3).
Changing a school system is not easy. Some social factors ease the
process, while others make it more difficult.When creating the selfdirected
learning system at Mary Ward, educators, students, and the
community dealt with factors that helped the change (such as the
belief that students are more successful when they take responsibility
for their own learning) and factors that made the change difficult
(such as the belief that students should finish all courses by the end of
the traditional school year).
CHECK YOUR LEARNING
Figure 3 Mary Ward Catholic
Secondary School is a school for
self-directed learning in Toronto.
1. What are some parts (both physical and social) of a waste
management system
2. Early waste management involved dumping garbage in
one spot and then burning it, burying it, or leaving it there.
Describe some of the social factors that caused this system
to evolve.
3. (a) What social factors need to be addressed when a
conventional school plans to change into a school for
self-directed learning
(b) How would you react if your school planned to change
into a school for self-directed learning How would your
parents react
NEL
1.4 Systems Evolve 21